Useful screenwriting info, random rants, and shameless self-promotion

Blogging makes you stoopid

That’s not true. The point of this particular rant is don’t believe everything that you read.

And, yes. The irony is not lost on me.

We live in an age where anyone can get a free blog and write anything your heart desires with zero accountability. I mean, it’s just the internet.

I google things every day and find all kinds of useful knowledge. However the problem is now we’re flooding the internet with bad information. I’ll just say it: it’s bullshit.

Here’s why.

Example 1

Idiot buys a Super Awesome Machine. He spends $300 on it. He’s very happy with his purchase. Yay, Idiot. But after a few weeks at home playing with the Super Awesome Machine he becomes frustrated. It’s not doing everything he wants it to. Idiot is very upset. He goes online and writes a big-old blog about all the “problems” he’s found with the Super Awesome Machine. Now keep in mind Idiot has never cracked the instruction manual. Everything he learned, he learned by just pressing buttons. Turns out Idiot was not using the Super Awesome Machine correctly.

The consequences?

Buyer is interested in purchasing the Super Awesome Machine. But Buyer is no fool. $300 is a lot of money. So he goes online to see what the general feedback is. He discovers Idiot’s blog. Idiot seems to know what he’s talking about, he’s taken the time to write detailed notes about all the problems with the Super Awesome Machine. I mean, shit, he’s got bullet-points! The result is Buyer does not buy the Super Awesome Machine. Maybe he buys the rival company’s Fantastically Good Machine. Maybe his friends ask him why he bought that instead of the Super Awesome Machine and he says, “I read a bad reviews online.” Maybe those friends get into a future conversation where they echo their friend’s statement.

Now not only is the company that makes the Super Awesome Machine losing sales, but people are spreading negative hearsay based on the experience of one Idiot.

Example 2

I buy stuff from Amazon.com all the time. It’s convenient and there are always reviews of products. However I noticed some big differences in the reviews. I’ve now come to realize the reviews are tainted. Not only with the overwhelmingly positive reviews by the companies that create the products, but also completely horrendous reviews posted rival companies. This is a flat out fact. I’ve seen this in play. They create fake profiles and post reviews.

And I’m not picking on Amazon.com. I’m sure this happens on other websites as well.

You can usually spot the fake positive reviews because they have the same salesy tone as the product description. The negative ones are harder to spot. Unless of course they name drop the rival product as the alternative.

Not only do they post these reviews, then they rank them as super-helpful. If this happens enough times that review is posted high in the reviews listed.

The internet can be great and full of fantastic information and reviews, but don’t take it all as gospel. There’s a lot of misinformation disseminated as well. Some maliciously, some by complete idiots.

It was either Hitler or some studio executive that said, “Individually people are stupid, collectively they’re smart.”